The popular Japanese anime revolving around the life of a robotic cat has got a makeover and landed on the television sets of folks in the US.
Yes, you heard that right! Doraemon, with translations and promotion efforts supported by the Japanese government, launched in US on Monday. The character has been changed in many ways, such as characters’ names and environment, in line with practices and traditions in US.
The move to take the extremely popular anime character to this market comes against a backdrop of a government-perceived crisis, as foreign sales of Japanese animations have halved from its peak 2006 figure due to a lack of recent hits and an increasing number of illegal distribution sites according to a recent research. The government hopes for renewed success through cooperation with the private sector.
Disney XD will broadcast 26 episodes of Doraemon, reaching out to nearly 78 million households in the United States.
So in the US version, Nobita is called Noby and bully Gian is Big G, among other changes. And keeping in mind the target audience the characters use forks to eat, instead of chopsticks, and use dollars instead of yen.
Some aspects remain unchanged to maintain the anime’s original feel. Big G, for example, continues to say his favorite phrase in this version as well: “What’s mine is mine. What’s yours is mine.”
Doraemon has been broadcast in 35 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, but the Japanese version was used with the dialogue dubbed in local languages. The show is telecast in India on both Hungama TV as well as Disney Channel India.
